Gaza mothers hope Shalit's deal to be finalized soon

Every Monday morning, 52-year-old mother Om Mahmoud al-Rayyes goes to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Gaza to join dozens of mothers to call for the release of their jailed sons in Israeli prisons.

"I haven't seen my son Mahmoud for seven years. I cry when I hold his shirts or when I look at his pictures together with his friends. Pain and tears kill me when we have breakfast since the beginning of Ramadan as his seat at the dining table is still vacant," she said.

Mahmoud al-Rayyes, a 28-year-old Palestinian man residing in Gaza, was arrested at an Israeli army roadblock in central Gaza Strip seven years ago. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Israeli military court on charges of using arms against Israel.

Not only mothers, but also wives and children gather every Monday at the ICRC office in Gaza City, holding pictures of the prisoners, and sending letters to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the United Nations, the United States and Europe to help release their beloved from Israeli prisons.

Like Om Mahmoud, most of the families of Palestinian prisoners hope that Israel would accept the conditions of Islamic Hamas movement on freeing captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for some 1,000 prisoners, including 450 sent to heavy sentences.

Shalit was abducted in an armed attack in June 2006 when Hamas and two other armed groups raided an Israeli army base near the borders between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel. Egypt and recently Germany have been mediating between Hamas and Israel to finalize the deal.

Recent reports said there has been a progress in the indirect talks to finalize the prisoners swap between Israel and Shalit's captors, which is basically Hamas, since German intelligence officials joined the mediation.

According to a senior Hamas official, a German mediator had visited the Gaza Strip around 11 times since June this year. Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal held talks in Cairo with senior Egyptian intelligence officials on Saturday and Sunday on Shalit's deal and the reconciliation.

Meshaal did not deny that a progress has been made in the indirect talks, mainly after the German mediators joined. However, he said at a press conference in Cairo "We are still at the beginning, and the road to finalize the swap deal is still long."

Sources in Hamas movement, close to the talks on Shalit's deal, told Xinhua that if Israel accepts the captors' conditions, Shalit will be released soon, noting that through difficult negotiations "We expect the deal would be finalized in November."

"I hope that Israel and Hamas will reach an agreement soon, and I hope that all our imprisoned sons will be among those who will be released as soon as the prisoners swap deal is achieved," said Karima, the wife of Majdi al-Masri, who has been in Israeli jails for two years.

Al-Masri, 25, is married with three daughters of which five-year-old Zeina is the oldest. Two-year-old Kholood, the youngest, was born two months after her father was arrested during an Israeli army raid on the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun.

Majdi's mother, wife and three daughters also came this week tojoin the prisoners' family gathering at the ICRC. Majdi's wife andhis mother cried with tears when Zeina said "all fathers bring presents to their children during Ramadan, except my father."

During the gathering at the ICRC, political figures, leaders and spokespersons for Palestinian factions, and sometimes officials in the government of Islamic Hamas movement come to show solidarity with the detainees' families.

Ahmed Bahar, deputy speaker of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament, visited the families of the prisoners at the ICRC. He slammed Israel for keeping more than 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, telling the prisoners' mothers "your children sacrificed for building up our homeland."

Minister of Prisoners Affairs Mohamed Faraj al-Ghoul told the prisoners' families at the ICRC "Pray to Allah that the prisoners swap deal will succeed in order to get your children released," calling on the ICRC and other organizations to interfere to save the Palestinian prisoners.

A mother, who called herself Om Yousef, said "Even if Shalit's case is finalized, only 1,000 prisoners will be released, out of 11,000 prisoners. Many mothers will be hurt if they see other prisoners are released, and their sons are still in custody."